Healthier

How to spell healthier

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce healthier

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does healthier mean?

1. adjectiveIn a better state of health, or more conducive to good health, than something compared.

Healthier in a sentence

• Swapping fried food for grilled fish is a healthier choice.

• After months of exercise he felt much healthier than before.

Where does healthier come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the comparative form of the adjective 'healthy', which traces back through 'health' to the Old English noun 'hælth', meaning 'wholeness' or 'soundness of body and mind'. That noun was itself built on the Old English adjective 'hal', meaning 'whole, sound, well', the very same root that gives us the modern words 'whole', 'hale', and even the greeting 'hail'. The original idea was that to be healthy was simply to be complete and unbroken, which is why ideas of wholeness and wellness still cling to the word. The comparative was formed in the ordinary English way by adding '-er', and because the adjective ends in '-y', the spelling changes that 'y' to an 'i' before the ending, giving 'healthier' rather than 'healthyer'. That y-to-i shift is the small spelling rule that catches people out, since the silent 'a' inside 'health' and the buried 'i' both have to be remembered.

How the word is built

• health (from Old English hælth: wholeness, soundness of body)
• -i- (linking from -y)
• -er (comparative suffix)